County Kerry

County

County Kerry (County) on The Modern Antiquarian, the UK & Ireland's most popular megalithic community website. 4 news items, plus information on many more ancient sites nearby and across the UK & Ireland.

News

Council approves donkey sanctuary on ancient site

Kerry County Council last night confirmed it had given the go-ahead for a donkey sanctuary and roadway now under construction in a unique Bronze Age valley near the Conor Pass which contains dozens of archaeological monuments.
The council said it had made its ruling “based on the information” it was given... continues...

Outrage at Destruction at Dun Mor

From u.tv

The 700 metres of earthen works that surrounded the ancient Dun Mor Fort on the Dingle Peninsula were levelled at the weekend by an excavating machine. An entrance and a standing stone with an ogham inscription were also removed.

Heritage Ireland spokeswoman Isobel Smyth said it was a dreadful act... continues...

Latest posts for County Kerry

There is a fort in Dromin in the land of Michael Seannel and it is a very eerie place. Many strange stories are told about it. One night a man by the name of Cronin was coming home from town and as he drew near the fort field he heard an awful noise. As he was passing the gate a big man asked him to play a football match with them and he said he could. The side that the man played with won the game and when it was over the man went home. When he reached home he went to bed.

When the people of the house got up next morning, Cronin was very bad and he was all black from head to foot. The people of the house sent for the doctor and the doctor said that there was nothing to be done for him but to send for the priest, and the priest came and he was anointed. About an hour or two later the man died because people say that he got a fairy stroke.

There is another story told about that place. One night a man was standing beside the wall and as he was just in the act of coming home he heard all the talk going down the field. The man says the people did not come up the road or down the road or go in the gate, but the talk was going down the field at the same time and Seannel's dog was barking.

More fairy weirdness from the Schools Collection of the 1930s, online at duchas.ie.

This four poster, sadly threatened by trees, lies on an island marked Knockacappul on the OS map, in Kilmakillog harbour on the south shore of the Kenmare River. We were informed that it is owned by Lauragh Gardens, but didn’t check.

You can get across to the island at low tide wearing wellington boots, or paddling, but be warned that the channel is over a metre deep at high tide, and the water moves quickly with the tide running. We used the tide tables for Bantry Bay, and crossed 40 minutes before low tide there (ankle-deep at worst), which gave us more than enough time on the island to get back safely with the water apparently no deeper.

To get there, drive past the post office at Lauragh (at the northern end of the Healy Pass) in the direction of Ardgroom, over the stone bridge, and turn left on the road signposted to Shronebirrane circle. After a few hundred metres there’s a driveway on the right, with a gate a short way up, leading to a large house. This lies about 100 metres from the best crossing point, though it’s not easy to get over the fence on the opposite side of the road (the access gate being completely out of the question) and then through the trees.

We stepped over the fence about 50 metres further along the road, where the bank drops, walked back to a point level with the driveway, and struck out for the island, eventually coming upon a ditch that leads to the channel and crossing point.

It’s an easy drop off the bank - but be careful of slipping on the seaweed that covers the rocks. The circle is in the trees, slightly to the south of the centre of the island, just short of where the trees thin out. It has one very tall stone and a very low stone at north, and two others of medium height at the south.

There’s an outlier some 13 metres to the north, hidden from the circle by closely packed trees. We also noted a large stone (probably not an outcrop, perhaps a fallen outlier?) about 35 metres to the east.

To celebrate a safe crossing, and actually finding the stones, we treated ourselves to a delicious coffee and freshly baked pastries at the post office/café at Lauragh.

There is a stone in Ohermong called the Glánn Bawn or white stone. It is about five feet overground and buried in the earth to some depth. It is about six feet in circumference. An old lady who died about 30 years ago aged 95 at that time and a native of Ballinkelligs told my father that there lived in Ballinskelligs a woman who had as a custom to dig as many potatoes on Sundays in the harvest time as she would require for the week. She was digging one Sunday about dusk when suddenly she was taken away and found herself underground at the Glánn Bawn in Ohermong. She was very downhearted at being swept away and she was told by one of the underground people who took pity on her not to eat any of their food and that they would have to let her go again. She refused the food and after three days she was taken home again. She took some bread with her which she put on the fence near her home and any thing living would not eat it and it melted on the fence. She used to say afterwards "do bí caint briágh ann"[?] She did not dig any more potatoes on Sundays. This has happened about one hundred and fifty years ago and the old lady who told the story always believed that there is an under-ground house at the "Glánn Bawn" in Ohermong.

From the 1930s Schools Collection now being transcribed at duchas.ie. I regret I can't transcribe the Irish properly so feel free to correct me (and tell me what it means :)

There are three raths in this area, but this one seems to be the best preserved, judging from the aerial photographs. Perhaps it's this one that's the source of this story in the Schools Collection (written in the 1930s, now being digitised at duchas.ie).

There is a fort situated about one mile from the village of Ballylongford in the townland of Ballyline, in the land which now belongs to Patrick Diggins. It is round in shape and is surrounded by trees.
John Diggins had a man employed to knock the fort. The servant went to the Priest to ask if he could knock the fort, and the Priest told him that if he got any other work to do not to mind the fort. He told this to his master and the master himself went to knock it. He got a stroke of a branch into the eye and he lost the sight of that eye. He went at it again and cut the trees and ploughed the fort and set corn in it, and after twelve months, the fort grew up again.

There is a fort in the townland of Ballyline in the land of Mr. Patrick Lavery about two miles from Ballylongford. This fort is circular in shape and it is surrounded by white thorn and black thorn bushes. There is a gap in it and there is a path near it.
One night there was a man from Ballyline named John O'Brien going home and he heard great noise in the fort. He looked in and he saw a great crowd of men inside sitting at a table on which there were plenty eatables and drinkables. One of the men invited him in, and he went and had a good time. He recognised a few of the men that were dead for years. Towards morning the crowd disappeared and the man went home after a good night.